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Stumped!
Beginning to suspect that the rear end I swapped in may have the same problem as the original. (Or, that suspicion may just be symptomatic of being stumped: Start all over again!)
Here's the summary of the tedium I've detailed in earlier posts: chronic noise from the rear end which has gotten worse recently. New axle bearings two years ago, new center support bearing and number one u-joint two years ago, boneyard rear end two weeks ago, boneyard propeller shaft this week (u-joints OK, new center support bearing). The noise continues.
Today, suspicion falls onto the boneyard rear end and the axle bearings. I suspect the axle bearings because the noise may have followed them to the newer rear end, as I kept them with the car since I had put on new bearings so recently. But, in their defense, they seemed OK while I had them out during the rear end transfer, and they seem OK when I have the car up in the air.
I suspect the rear end because I know nothing of its history. It seemed OK in the boneyard, as well as I could tell. Only when I just about had it out and was pulling the brake parts to leave behind did I notice that there was a slight leak of differential oil through one inner axle seal. The oil was all over the parking brake, but there was still plenty in the differential case itself, and very little swarf in the bottom of the case or on the drain plug. No leak from the pinion. In the rear end's defense, swapping the newer one in did not make the noise worse.
Part of the difficulty in diagnosis seems to be that the driveline components I'm trying to check out (differential, axle bearings, u-joints) perform differently when up in the air on a jack than they do when under load. It would be great if there were a reliable way to test it all up in the air.
Puzzling. While no single step in the repairs I've made has solved "the problem," these repairs have fixed some lesser problems. It would seem that "the problem" I'm hoping to fix (someday!) may be or may have been hidden by the overlapping of several problematic conditions.
Not fixed yet. And I'm not sure which earlier fix to refix.
(Earplugs, anyone?)
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